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Chloe flew up beside us. She whirled around and shot a spell behind herself. It hit a griffin shifter in the face, and he tumbled out of the sky. Several spells blasted in her direction, and I instinctually cast a shield around her. The spells slammed into my shield, unable to penetrate it, but my magic recoiled. Their spells were strong.
We had to be stronger.
Grant conjured the Alchemy Wand and aimed it toward the clouds above us. The clouds darkened, until the sound of heavy rain followed behind us. I wasn’t sure what that was supposed to do, until I heard the pained cries of shifters as the rain hit their bodies. I twisted around to see the rain sizzling off feathers, fur, and scales. Roars of pain ricocheted through the sky as the acid rain burned holes through their bodies. Grant had used the Alchemy Wand to poison the clouds.
It wasn’t enough to kill them all, though. Hundreds more were in pursuit.
Professor Warren lifted his hands, and at least a dozen bodies of dead shifters flapped their wings, following the command of his necromancy magic. He ordered the bodies to take flight and fight off the incoming shifters. Griffin talons tore at dragon’s eyes, and wolvens gnashed their teeth at alicorns. Several more shifters fell from the sky, but it barely slowed the others down. It was an impressive feat to manipulate so many corpses at the same time, but there were far more shifters than Professor Warren could fight off at once. He slumped against his windfarer as he summoned more magic that continued to drain his energy.
Our windfarers climbed higher in the sky, traversing the clouds, until we broke through on the other side. Spells whizzed through the sky at random as the fae shifters tried to guess where we had gone. I shot a glance over my shoulder to see shifters rising above the clouds, closer than before. I wasn’t sure we could outrun them.
Shifters with sorceresses on their backs broke through the clouds ahead of us. The windfarers nearly toppled out of the sky as they quickly shifted course.
“Emma and Ethan have let witches into our country!” a fae sorceresses yelled. “We must kill every last dark magic user.”
A chorus of cheers filled the air, and a split second later, my vision went completely black. I blinked several times, looking one way and then the other, but I saw nothing.
“Lucas!” Nadine shrieked. “I can’t see!”
I gritted my teeth. “Neither can I.”
“It’s a fae illusion!” Verla’s voice came from far off.
Chloe gave a maniacal laugh. “Oh, no you don’t!”
Magic crackled from beside me. My vision returned the same time screams filled the air. Ahead of us, shifters had turned on one another. Dragons lunged out for griffin shifters, tearing their wings off their bodies. Alicorns rammed their sharp horns into the bellies of the wolven men.
I was shocked, until I looked over at Chloe and saw her holding up the Mentalist Wand. She’d gotten into their minds and was forcing them to kill one another!
“I’ve distracted them!” Chloe yelled. “Let’s keep moving.”
I kicked the sides of the windfarer’s body, and he flew above the shifters. Their dying cries grew distant, but flapping wings still followed. The original group of shifters were still in pursuit, and they’d nearly caught up to us.
“What do we do!?” Grant cried.
“We’ve always been told witches can break fae magic,” I shouted to my friends. “One on one, they’re stronger than us, but together we’re stronger than they are! Let’s see if the stories are true. We need to combine our magic.”
We all lifted our hands in unison, and magic of all colors began to swirl through the sky. Nadine gathered the power of all five Casts into one central core at her heart. Then it expanded outward, encompassing us all in a protective shield. Spells slammed into the shield. Nadine gave a shudder with each one, but our magic held.
Then Nadine did the most incredible thing. She commanded the spell to grow, until our magic touched the fae. One by one, Nadine broke the fae spells and the shifters turned back into men. Screams tore through the air as the fae fell through the skies. Women tried to conjure their fae wings, but it was to no avail. Our enemies spiraled out of the sky, plummeting to their deaths.
Talia maneuvered her windfarer in the direction the Seer Wand had shown her, and we all followed. We banked to the right, avoiding the open space ahead. Instead, the windfarers landed in a cluster of trees, and we quickly made our way across the river. Our shoes squished with mud as we came out on the other side. The second we were across the river and outside the boundary of Malovia, I created a portal, and we leapt through.
The air shifted around us, and we stood in the forest just outside the safe house. I quickly glanced around to see if everyone and their cats had made it, and I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw we were all here.
“Thank the Goddess,” Talia cried, before falling into Grant’s arms.
Verla sagged against Professor Warren. “We made it,” she breathed.
Warren got a worried look on his face, then turned to me. “The venom did a number on her. I’m going to get her to her room right away. You should all rest, too. It’s been a long night.”
The morning sun peeked through the overcast sky. It was only then that I realized how tired I was. The others looked exhausted. Warren led Verla inside ahead of us, and we followed behind them.
When we stepped into the living room, my stomach dropped. Tate and Mandy sat on the couch, curled under blankets. Tate was sleeping, though Mandy was wide awake, watching the door. Tate stirred when we arrived.
Miles and Onyx were both pacing the room, looking worried. It’d been over a day since I portaled them to the safe house, promising to return as soon as possible. It’d been a long time to make them wait. When we walked in, both of them gave a start.
“You’re back!” Onyx cried.
